Suspicious fire leaves one dead in Shell Point

Has a Black president changed America?

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Steven Hull, president of Mason Dixon Services, LLC located in Maryland, provided this drone footage shot on Friday, Oct. 14, 2016, of a neighborhood on Hilton Head Island of trees toppled by Hurricane Matthew. The company, which specializes in stabilizing structures after storm damage, stresses that homeowners should make sure they work with licensed contractors. Hull says they've mainly been dealing with downed trees working in the Bluffton, Hilton Head area since last Wednesday.
Mason Dixon Services LLC

This tree at Treetop Villas on Cordillo Parkway on Hilton Head Island took a lamp post with it as it toppled during Hurricane Matthew on Oct. 8, 2016.
Jay Karrjkarr@islandpacket.com

Katie Callahan, right, and Dorothea Griffin lead a “Save Our Trees” march on Pope Avenue on Hilton Head Island in 1984.
Staff file photo

Katie Callahan, left, and Jane Plante stand in front of a land clearing machine in March, 1985 on Hilton Head Island during a Save Our Trees protest. They were protesting the clearing of land along Palmetto Bay Road on Hilton Head for a water line installation.
FileStaff file photo

Since then, some people have been saying we had too many trees. They say county, municipal and private regulations to preserve trees need to be whittled down to the size of a No. 2 pencil so our naked fortresses can be unscathed the next time we get hit by a hurricane.

These people are wrong.

Suffice it to say, if you don’t like trees, you don’t like Beaufort County.

We are not Manhattan. Manhattan still has plenty of housing available for those who want that. But we are trying to be Central Park. Today, more than ever, we must understand our heritage and fight this new assault on it.

From the beginning of recorded history, people who have discovered Beaufort County have remarked lovingly on its trees.

These protective ordinances and Tree City USA designations represent the DNA of Beaufort County, its municipalities and private developments. None of it is the result of snap decisions, or willy-nilly meddling.

A tree-protection ordinance was among the earliest moves of the Town of Hilton Head Island after incorporation in 1983. That was an extension of the wishes and land-use covenants of the island’s first major developers, the Fraser family in Sea Pines, the Hack family in Port Royal and Shipyard, and the McIntosh family in Spanish Wells.

To egg the town on, citizens held a Save Our Trees march down Pope Avenue.

Suffice it to say, if you don’t like trees, you don’t like Beaufort County. And if you didn’t notice that you were buying land along an ocean that feeds hurricanes, you are not sharp enough to shape public policy.

Trees are both an environmental and economic resource, contributing to Beaufort’s sense of place.

Coastal Conservation League

Tree protection is a matter of minutiae, and God bless the people who pore over it all. We have both incentives to protect trees and punishments for those who do not. We have tree banks, wherein I could pay for trees to be planted elsewhere when the pines in my front yard have to go.

But on this Arbor Day, and in the months ahead as tree protections are re-examined, we must see the forest for the trees.

One of them called me this week. Betsy Jukofsky, who wrote a gardening column in The Island Packet for more than a quarter of a century and who the xeriscape garden at Town Hall is named for, is worried that Lowcountry residents today no longer get it.

“Maybe the broiling sun next summer and not enough shade will make it more relevant,” she sighed.

The Coastal Conservation League is fighting for trees. A petition it organized this summer to urge a tighter Beaufort County tree ordinance recites concisely the big picture:

“Trees are both an environmental and economic resource, contributing to Beaufort’s sense of place. A strong tree ordinance will be comprehensive in nature, help buffer incompatible land uses, absorb heat, reduce soil erosion and stormwater runoff, contribute to wildlife habitat and diversity, and preserve an identity for Beaufort County. We believe the tree ordinance should be consistent, encourage wildlife corridors, and be appropriate for the scale of development.”

Maybe the broiling sun next summer and not enough shade will make it more relevant.

Betsy Jukofsky

Sea Pines developer Charles E. Fraser was a fan of Julian Huxley’s essay, “Man’s Challenge: The Use of the Earth.” He included this snippet of it in early brochures touting his fledgling development:

“One function of the earth whose importance we have to recognize is that of wilderness, the function of allowing men and women to get away from the complications of industrial civilization, and make contact with fine scenery and unspoilt nature ...

“Wilderness lovers ... also include a sizable proportion of interesting characters and original thinkers. Wilderness is, in the long run, one of the major functions functions Humanity demands from the surface of the earth.”

This concept, or worldview, formed a major building block for Beaufort County’s economic success over the past 60 years. Even as it was being developed, it was understood, and even celebrated, that this special place is not for everybody.

The day we forget that is the day we sell our birthright for a mess of pottage.

Nov. 19, 2016 In the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew’s destruction in Beaufort County, The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette asked local leaders and others to weigh in on what went well and what could have gone better. Lessons emerged that may better prepare us for when the next hurricane hits. | READ

Oct. 28, 2016 Hurricane Matthew battered thousands of buildings and trees and caused widespread power outages and flooding throughout the Lowcountry in the early morning hours of Oct. 8. But the Category 2 storm didn’t dampen the resolve of residents determined to help their neighbors – and complete strangers – who were suffering. | READ

Has a Black president changed America?

No more guessing which is Walmart or Sam's Club at Bluffton Gateway

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CrowderGulf is leading a team of contractors in the mulching efforts after Hurricane Matthew ripped through the Lowountry in the early hours of Oct. 8, 2016 on Hilton Head Island at two locations - here, as shown at Honey Horn as well as Chaplin Community

Has a Black president changed America?

No more guessing which is Walmart or Sam's Club at Bluffton Gateway

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For residents of Hilton Head Island who evacuated for Hurricane Matthew, a primary barrier - literally - to returning home is the huge number of downed trees on Highway 278, as well as on secondary roads. Here, members of the South Carolina National Guard

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The Aiken family, who lives just outside Indigo Run on Hilton Head Island, contacted the private community to tell management a tree close to their property was leaning dangerously. That tree later fell, landing on the Aikens' roof.

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Mickey Goodman came home to his North Forest Beach home to find a two-story-tall tree across the front of his North Forest Beach House. The tree does not appear to have damaged his home's structure, but it might be weeks before a tree company is free to r